Erika, a singer/actress and graduate from CMU drama school, has used her talent to comfort the children at Children’s Hospital, where she volunteers every week to go room to room dressed as a princess.

It was an idea Kathleen and two friends had more than 25 years ago: to gather perfectly viable medical supplies that were no longer needed or used, and get them to hospitals that were in dire need of them, here in Pittsburgh and internationally.

With all the pressures that students have in college these days — hard course loads, maintaining good grades and even finding time for fun, you would think they would have little time for anything else.

A study that was done in 1977 at the University of Pittsburgh on the instances of hunger in Allegheny County documented 48,000 people experiencing hunger — that is, going without food for a 24-hour period.